Using up the wood...

I have been the happy recipient of other peoples' left over 2X4s, 2X6s and 2X2s over the past 10 years that I've owned this house. Most of it is no longer straight and true, unfortunately. I've had to make the best of it, since I really would rather not burn it in a great big bonfire or just dump it. That just doesn't seem right. But cutting it into smaller pieces seemed to be something that could overcome the fact that some of it is doing the twist, let's just say.

There is a space under my deck that could use something: a plant bench, some seating or some sort of storage scenario, so I thought I'd do a little something. Here's the space...

and here's what it's becoming... First, I layed out the benches to see how the pattern of the wood configuration would look. I didn't want to just put a bunch of 2X2s together and hope that it would look right, so I played around with the spacing and colors of wood grain. I like how the asymmetrical placement looks on the bench tops.




Understand that I've got some finishing work to do so that little people don't get splinters. After I screwed the 2X4s to the underside of the deck, I built legs to support the bench tops. Now I've got to anchor the benches down and then attach some trim pieces to finish it off. (And get rid of the bees that seem to think they can build their home above and to the right - they aren't listening to my pleas for them to find another place to build.)

The Bistro Table

I've been looking at this corner on my deck for a while and wondering what could be done to create a more usable space. I usually put the Weber in this corner and there are a couple of bags of charcoal and really, it doesn't (didn't) always look the best. Sort of like an eddy for stuff...

Well, I got hit with an inspiration a little while back and last weekend, I got going with what I pictured would work there... so here it is.